According to Manuel, the cartel pays $25,000 a month each to Mexico’s local, state, and federal police and to the National Guard. While the Mexican army does not accept the bribe, they allegedly turn a blind eye in exchange for favors.
The fight to protect the border, part of the greater war to preserve America’s national sovereignty, has a multi-faceted and ever-changing landscape. Criminal cartels and human smugglers have adapted to the Trump administration’s efforts to thwart illegal migration.
As part of a recent report, the Associated Press spoke with a human smuggling “money man” identified only as Manuel.
“We control all the territory” along the Arizona border he told AP, which wrote that Manuel works for the Sinaloa cartel. He claimed to handle the income from smuggling migrants along a 375-mile territory along the U.S.-Mexico border — a jurisdiction that brings in an average or $1 million a month in illegal money.
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